Wilson Ramos to the Mets - 2 Years/$19.5m

[JDBrewCrew]

Daniel Álvarez Montes

@DaniAlvarez_16

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Source: #Mets are in agreement with Wilson Ramos. Pending physical.

 

Jon Heyman

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@JonHeyman

8s9 seconds ago

Wilson Ramos agrees to mets deal, pending physical

 

Ken Rosenthal

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@Ken_Rosenthal

Source: Ramos with #Mets is two-year deal, pending physical.

 

Joel Sherman

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@Joelsherman1

1m1 minute ago

Ramos contract will be guaranteed at $19.5M #Mets

[ThisIsMyCrew]

Be interesting to see the numbers. Anything over 8 a year is too steep. Field continues to narrow for Realmuto...

[JDBrewCrew]

Jon Heyman

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@JonHeyman

3m3 minutes ago

Ramos gets 19M

[brewmann04]

i like what the mets have done and we see what LA does in Fa now to make them the frontrunners in the NL west. I like that DS and the crew take their time to make moves but they were just one game from the WS and still needs to add IMO . I am a bit concerned that some guys might take a step back and you will need someone step up.

[SRB]

Seems like a great deal for the Mets. Here's hoping the Brewers splurge on Grandal.

[Eye Black]

Field continues to narrow for Realmuto...

 

I have been continuing to update this Post in the catching thread.

 

Teams rumored to still be in on Realmuto:

 

Dodgers

Padres

Reds

Rays

 

And here are the other teams possibly still in the market for a catching upgrade:

 

Braves (some debate whether or not they are still interested in J.T.)

Phillies

Brewers

Rockies

Red Sox

Angels

[True Blue Brew Crew]

I keep hearing the Astros connected to Realmuto as well.

[Eye Black]

I keep hearing the Astros connected to Realmuto as well.

That wouldn’t suprise me, but I didn’t see them mentioned among the most recent rumors. I certainly don’t think signing Robinson Chirinos would stop them from still making a significant upgrade at catcher. Similar to the Brewers, I could see the Astros keeping close tabs on the Realmuto market.

[adambr2]

I would have been quite happy to get him at that price. Too bad.

[brewmann04]

good price for Ramos but any thing the crew are happy with Pina and his backups?

[KeithStone53151]

Does anyone wonder if us trading that comp pick is a precursor to signing someone with a QO attached? Maybe grandal?

 

That 3rd highest pick becomes a 3rd round pick instead of a 2nd round pick now that we traded that pick away.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

good price for Ramos but any thing the crew are happy with Pina and his backups?

 

There are a lot of catchers still available. It would be pretty cool if they feel Nottingham is ready to take the step to regular playing time in the majors. He has his warts, but there is a lot to like there, too.

[Eye Black]

Does anyone wonder if us trading that comp pick is a precursor to signing someone with a QO attached? Maybe grandal?

 

That 3rd highest pick becomes a 3rd round pick instead of a 2nd round pick now that we traded that pick away.

The competitive balance pick was a protected selection (i.e. couldn’t be lost regardless of whether they sign a QO free agent).

 

It actually works the other way a little bit where if they thought they were going to sign a QO free agent they may have been somewhat less inclined to give up the competitive balance round A pick.

[MillerParkSouth]

I would have been quite happy to get him at that price. Too bad.

Yep. Kind of annoying we didn’t want to beat that considering how underwhelming our catching was last year.

[Eye Black]

I would have been quite happy to get him at that price. Too bad.

Yep. Kind of annoying we didn’t want to beat that considering how underwhelming our catching was last year.

Would have been a good upgrade at a fair price on a short term commitment. I would have been happy with that deal for the Brewers. I know some people are still hopeful for Nottingham’s future, but if he starting meaningful MLB games for the Brewers this year I won’t be thrilled.

[JosephC]

Ramos seems like he would be an ideal investment for Milwaukee at that price. Do have some concerns about that knee, but he looked healthy at the end of last year and a 2 year, 20 million dollar deal isn't that huge of an investment.

[reillymcshane]

I have to agree that $2/20 was a pretty nice deal for the Mets. Not super cheap - but good. I would have been happy with this deal for us.

 

Another thing to keep in mind is even if we offered the same to Ramos - even a little more - perhaps Ramos preferred NY as his home for the next few years. Just don't know.

 

No matter, I'll be interested to see where we invest our money.

[wallus]

I am assuming we would have had to pay more, maybe a lot more, to get Ramos versus the Mets. Milwaukee still isn't a free agent destination for a lot of guys.

[adambr2]

It's possible that 2/20 would have gotten it done and we stood our ground at 2/16. Or it's possible Ramos preferred to go to New York and would have needed 3/36 to come here. No way we'll ever know, unfortunately.

[patrickgpe]

I like Ramos but not at that price. I prefer defensively minded catchers who can handle pitchers more than offensive catchers anyway. That being said, I still hope they somehow get another catcher to compete for the backup job and that they spend some money on 2nd base.

[RollieTime]

Mets seem to have gotten a pretty good deal on this one. I was hoping we could get Ramos to add another solid bat in the lineup. It’ll be interesting to see what route we go now. I think it’s too risky to rely on Nottingham becoming an everyday guy for us. There is a lot of time, but the bottom of our lineup can’t be Shaw, Perez, Arcia, and Pina. I personally don’t think Grandal is a good fit for us with his high strikeouts and low average. He does hit some homeruns, but isn’t really the type of hitter that Stearns seems to like to target. Ramos was the better hitter in my opinion.

[adambr2]

I like Ramos but not at that price. I prefer defensively minded catchers who can handle pitchers more than offensive catchers anyway. That being said, I still hope they somehow get another catcher to compete for the backup job and that they spend some money on 2nd base.

 

Ramos handled one of the best, most underrated pitching staffs in baseball last year. He also caught almost every game for the AL Cy Young Blake Snell before he was traded. He is not a defensive stud, but he's not bad.

 

I don't get why people are under the impression that Ramos is a bat only hack who stinks at everything else.

[Lathund]

Bat only hack would indeed be saying too much. But Baseball Prospectus, which is the only site of the 3 major ones to include framing in it's catcher valuations, rates Erik Kratz as the 8th best and Manny Piña as the 19th best defensive catchers in 2018. Ramos was 45th (out of 117); still barely above average, so not bad at all. But when putting together the defensive and offensive numbers, Ramos was worth 1.7 WARP. Piña was 1.6, Kratz 1.4. Now Wilsons last two healthy seasons in 2015 and 2016 were better; 2.4 and 4.3 WARP (Carried by very solid defensive numbers) but injuries do play into it; do they believe the dropoff in defense is temporary or not?

 

Now I wouldn't read too much into the exact numbers; there's a margin of error, it's just a one-season sample, and while the little I've read on the framing metrics seems sound I can't be sure. But, that being said, the point would be that the value of catcher defense is underrated by many, and that it puts Piña a lot closer to Ramos than one might initially think. Most of the difference comes from framing. It's a small effect, but with the number of pitches thrown per team and year in the tens of thousands, there are a lot of opportunities.

 

Brewers aren't using BaseballProspectus FRAA to judge their catchers, but they obviously have some kind of internal metric that lead them to Erik Kratz (and probably to Manny Piña) and that values those guys highly. Wilson Ramos and his bat would be an upgrade regardless, hence the reports of interest by the Brewers. And if they had more money to spend in the offseason he might have been a Brewer. But I would imagine that $10m would be a major chunk, if not all of, the money the club wants to spend in AAV for free agency. At least I would think that spending that on a RHB who can play 2B and spell Shaw at 3rd against lefties provides a bigger upgrade over Hernan Perez doing the same than Wilson Ramos does over Piña/Kratz/Nottingham. Another LHP might also have that effect, on his own and through the knock-on effect it has on our righties.

[brooks_quichenick]

His bat would've been a nice addition but I think with Ramos's defensive struggles I'd rather roll with the defense-first Pina/Kratz combo and try to add offense elsewhere (2B). Defense from the catching position is more important imo.

[tmwiese55]

I guess I'm in the camp that only a 2 year commitment at 9.5ish per year is very low risk so I likely would've matched that and had Pina has a great backup. That said, he's a human with personal preference and this isn't a video game so might have needed more to play in MKE. But 2/20 with some team options for year 3 seems ok to me, plus not having to trade any assets or give up picks. That said, I'm likely much lower on Kratz than many here and definitely than management is plus I don't know their financial constraints so they might have this money earmarked for a 2B/IF and can't afford both, I see that too.